- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (2) said the digital rupee about which finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the budget on Tuesday (1) will open up new opportunities for the fintech sector and will boost the digital economy.
“There is also a lot of discussion about Central Bank Digital Currency in today’s newspapers. This will give a big boost to the digital economy. This digital rupee, which is our physical currency now, will have a digital form and it will be controlled by RBI (Reserve Bank of India). It can be exchanged with physical currency. Digital Rupee will open up new opportunities for the fintech sector,” Modi said while addressing workers and leaders of his Bharatiya Janata Party on the budget.
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The prime minister also said that the online fund-transfer facility will be available in post office accounts like banks.
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“Now mobile banking, internet banking, ATM and online fund transfer facility will be available in post office accounts like banks. At present, there are more than 1.5 lakh post offices in the country, most of which are in villages,” he said.
Modi added that very soon optical fibre connectivity will be completed in all of India’s villages.
“Today cheap and fast internet has become the identity of India. Very soon optical fibre connectivity will be completed to all the villages. 5G service is going to give a different dimension to ease of living and ease of doing business in India,” Modi said.
In her budget, Sitharaman said income from digital asset transfers will be taxed at 30 per cent.
The move is being seen as ‘crypto tax’ and gifts received in the form of cryptocurrencies are likely to be taxed at the same rate. Cryptocurrency gifts would also be taxed at the receiver’s end, Asian News International reported.
The finance minister also announced that India’s central bank – the RBI — will issue a digital rupee in the next financial year.
In order to regulate the digital assets market, the Indian government had proposed to introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, in the winter session of Parliament.
However, the bill was not tabled with the government deciding to have more consultations.
Sitharaman said the Central Bank Digital Currency will give a big boost to the digital economy.
She said the digital currency will lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system and it will use technologies such as blockchain.
